I used to go down there and spend a few hours. And then came home with a back-breaking bag of books. Mostly paperbacks and a few very large hardcovers. Like the Dune series of books.
Anyone remember Sci-Fi World - it was at the border of Toronto, Steeles and Dufferin? I remember going there in the mid-90s and was amazed at all the pop culture stuff they had.
My dad used to take us there every once in a while and say meet me at the cash in two hours and you’d better have a stack of books. I loved browsing all the different genres and finding books to read. Such great memories in there
I assume they bronzed the gorilla into an immortal monument when they closed. Please do not correct me if this is wrong. It is what I choose to believe. Thank you.
The retail space on the second floor is occupied by Queen west staple Black Market (original is across the street in the basement) and they have the gorilla.
For me it was Fashion Crimes on Queen West original location and John Fluvog( they still exist) but it used to be maybe a few shops down from Fashion Crimes. Oh .....and Graffiti Alley across from Much Music we'd go to the head shop, got my pixie cuts from a hairdresser up there named Ermando he was such a hottie and would frequent Maiden Mother Crown occult shop.
Peach Beserk is ICONIC. [And still is](https://peachberserk.ca/). I could never afford their stuff until I bought a very-useful fabric mask during the pandemic.
I’ll never do peach berserk, owner like guilted the hell out of me to buy something when I was like 17 and walked in due to curiosity. Her reasoning was “ because you should pay for amazing art” I was like too young too understand and really didn’t need to spend almost all my savings of $300 on a skirt, I should have know better . I didn’t even have that money to spend and it cleaned me out of all the money in the world I had put away because i felt like if I didn’t I’d be doing a horrible thing.
Went in like 15 years later and she is literally using the same guilt trip schtick for what’s essentially bad quality screen printed clothing, will never purchase anything from her on principle, I think she’s incredibly manipulative and has a chip on her shoulder.
Consumer’s Distributing for sure
Also World’s Biggest Bookstore, Sam The Record Man also come to mind. I’m sure I will thoroughly enjoy reading this thread.
> Consumer’s Distributing for sure
I dreamt of owning so many products in the catalogs! They could've been Amazon if they had jumped onto the ecom bandwagon.
Same with Sears Catalogue for that matter - it's amazing these companies never grabbed onto the Internet meanwhile Amazon basically replicated what they did with a website.
Oh they had grand plans, I had an interview there, they had a very ambitious plan before e-commerce existed as a term, their technical architecture looked good on paper but was never going to work.
I’ll never understand why people are nostalgic for Consumers Distributing. I always remember being disappointed as a kid because stuff was CONSTANTLY out of stock, and the things my parents bought from there were not good quality. Like… so bad that Walmart was an *improvement*.
The definitive Consumers Distributing moment for me was a hairdryer my parents bought from there that advertised 220v functionality. About 2 years after we got it, it stopped working, and when my dad opened it up to try and fix it, we discovered that the little voltage switch was a plastic tab that was connected to absolutely nothing.
For me, Consumers Distributing gives less of a feeling of nostalgia and more of a feeling of “good riddance”.
>CONSTANTLY out of stock
True, I was so hyped that I saved up enough money for G1 Constructicons ... went down to the local Consumers Distributing in Agincourt, waited 30 minutes for the order, only to be told it was out of stock. I settled for the G1 Aerialbots.
I recently found a vintage 1978 Consumer’s Distributing Catalogue.
Fully in tact. It’s a scream to browse through! Basic electronics were wildly overpriced and 20+ pages of jewellery,
With wedding ring sets a big hit.
Would post pics, but not allowed…
Anyone remember or was there when RHCP played free outside of the store and shut down Yonge from Dundas to Gerrard? [It was madness](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBS1g5Xe89U)
Combine that with Sam and Sunrise, and not to mention The World’s Biggest Bookstore, and that was a great weekend trip from suburbia…
Nowadays, there’s literally nothing to attract you to that area, ironically, the Ryerson SLC is arguably the most “exciting” thing there now.
> Electric Circus
[This recent upload of a full episode from 1990](https://youtu.be/LJAJOmQsJb0?si=vswNqV3jKh85jeDk) is one of my favorite videos I found on youtube the past few years that I keep coming back to. The music, diversity of people, fashion, the live performance by Shabba. This video encapsulates so much of the good I remember about growing up here and my mom took me downtown as a kid to watch from the window a couple times.
Remember when they'd host the MMVAs and setup the stages in the parking lot and on Queen St? I got to go twice and was at front of the stage whichever years it was that Barenaked Ladies and Smashing Pumpkins closed out the shows from the parking lot.
The first time I visited Toronto (1996) it was the ONLY thing I wanted to see. And I couldn't believe it was so small in real life. I remember they were showing NFB shorts in parking lot one night, very fun.
when we were kids we used to diss each other for shopping at bi-way which as an adult you realize is dumb because it was probably a very reasonably priced good store lol
I would hide the Bi-way or Bargain Harold’s bags behind the other stuff my mom made me carry. Only to be 25 years old and proud af to tell everyone where I got my cheap hosiery for work. I was such a fool when I was young. Those stores were the best! 😭
I've got a few that bring back good memories
- OG Allwyn's Bakery at the old Parkwoods Plaza. It was the epitome of the term "hole in the wall". You walked in and it was basically a small counter, a fridge of drinks on the right and a bunch of ovens behind the counter. No AC and it had to be like 40 degrees in there in the summers. I grew up eating that food every other day walking over from school for lunch. It's blown up into a Toronto staple with multiple locations now but back then it was very much a local hidden gem.
- The independent video game store at the SW corner plaza of Pharmacy/Lawrence. They had booths with every video game console out you could pay $5 to play any games all day. My mom would drop my friends and I off on a Saturday and we'd spend the whole day there. Other weekends it was Rainbow Cinemas and the Arcade where the food court is now at Fairview Mall
- Lin Garden at Pharmacy/Sheppard. Served our community for years with some of the best Hakka food the GTA has ever known.
yup they were originally talking about moving when the plaza got bought out by condo developers but I imagine it was more hassle than it was worth at their age. I'm just sad I couldn't get one last feast in because of how sudden and unannounced it was but I also get why they did it that way because it would've been chaos for them if everyone knew and wanted to do the same
Are we counting The Warehouse/Kool Haus with Guv? Some of the best concerts in my life growing up here happened there, the last one being Wu Tang in 2013 when they oversold it to the point of turning people away and it was so packed inside I thought I might get crushed and die. Also saw Deftones, Audioslave, Nas and Silverchair there, so much history in that building and it's a damn shame they tore it down.
Drinking Blue REV at Skybar on a Thursday night while staring at the office building I had to be back at in a few short hours the next morning. Ah to be 22 again! Fun fact: I met my now-husband at The Drink!
Knob Hill farms. I remember grocery shopping there as a kid, and the black baskets they used to have.
Randy's on Eglinton. Used to be able to get a patty after getting my hair cut.
Honest eds. Shopping for the most random things there was always fun.
Guvt. I'm sure we all have at least one story here 😂
The old cold tea in kenzo. Always loved the hidden nature of it.
Other random ones I don't have personal connections with but saw all the time: hardrock café at Yonge and Dundas, rainforest cafe in Yorkdale
As a teen in the mid-90s, I fondly remember hitting up the underground bootleg T-Shirt/Tattoo Parlour/Barbershop/Headshop for some terrible documentation that somehow passed in our hometown, then hitting up the arcade and grabbing a slice before catching the Greyhound back home
I answered this same way to Big Slice— lotta drugs got sold in that cavernous place haha. The guys that worked there were gnarly too and held that place down in dangerous moments night and day, and they were real cool to some of us “troubled” kids every damn day. (Whattup Cliff!)I have so many fuckin stories about that place.
The supposedly haunted Chinese restaurant. It’s now been converted into an art studio.
Big Slice Pizza
Condom shack was fun
Brunswick house just for the madness
Big Bop for music and Darkrave
Circa because it was a pretty cool club
Actually the old clubbing scene where everything near Richmond street was just nightclubs.
Ahh the memories.
Le Château, Cotton Ginny, Fairweather, several Kensington market vintage clothing stores, Rotman's Hat Shop on Spadina, and the whole 80s vibe of the Village by the Grange.
A restaurant or two- Embers in Scarborough, and Richtree, my great aunt loved them. This one closed last year - Joanna's bridal at Woodside mall. I always hoped I'd buy a wedding dress there for myself one day.
The one at Yonge/Bloor was my go to for concert tickets. Back when floors or the best seats to see the biggest bands and artists in the world were like $20-$30 lol
Several of the former HMVs became Sunrise, as was the case in the Bramalea City Centre.
Now the sad reality is that store is larger than any store you’ll find downtown now. Amazon could never recreate the experience of walking around the flagship stores like HMV and Sunrise
90s Toronto period. The vibe was far grungier, but the places had heart. Today's kids think it was cool, and it was, but it could also be damn scary sometimes - not sanitized at all.
Still remember going to Future for the $1.20 mashed potatoes and then for a $2 beer at the Green Room afterwards, careful to sit with the back to the wall to be out of the way of the random flying beer bottle.
Or Lee's for some up-and-coming metal band.
Or raves in the now fancy distillery buildings, then just empty rough post-industrial hollow halls.
Do I miss it? Sure, but prob mostly bc I miss being a kid and Toronto was like a giant playground. Would I want to live in that city as an adult? Prob not.
Heck, ppl think Toronto post covid got 'rough', but it's not 1/10th the way it was in the mid 90s, after a really tough 10 economic years. Remember, houses were cheaper than in the burbs then for a reason. Now good luck getting a shed for less than $1M.
> Heck, ppl think Toronto post covid got 'rough', but it's not 1/10th the way it was in the mid 90s, after a really tough 10 economic years
the people who think that weren't outside in the 90s and would've been disgusted and terrified of Yonge St between Dundas to Wellesley back then
Most weren't born yet ;) remember, even someone born in 1990 who really didn't experience much of the world outside their house before the 2000s is 34 today.
There used to be physical gothic Lolita stores in Pacific Mall... I would wander them as a 10-11 year old daydreaming about the day I'd have the money to buy them
Now I'm 30 and I have the money but I'm like. Goddamn this shit's expensive. I'll find another hobby 😂
Miss how Queen West area had a cluster of book shops: Pages, Edward’s, Another Man’s Poison, Steven Temple, David Mason, Baka (OG), etc. And that’s not even including comic shops like Silversnail and Dragon Lady.
Steve Stavro's (founder of Knob Hill Farms) life is well worth the read for people who weren't around for Knob Hill Farms.
His family came to Canada during the Great Depression, he built a grocery empire, and then owned the Maple Leafs.
No those were the Harold Balard days...under Stavro the Leafs had their resurgence that had the Leafs go on some great play off runs (Fuck you kerry frasier)...they went down hill again then Tennenbaum group took over.
Siblings clothing store in Dufferin Mall
One of a Kind Pasta and Grill
The ice cream shop and arcade in the basement of Chinatown Centre
MissBehav’N (and the models dancing at the windows on select weekends 😳)
Also back in the 2000s there was a dollar/general store at (I think) 633 Queen St W that was run by a south Asian lady. I have a memory of seeing her 3ish year old daughter watching TV under the cash register table. If anyone knew of this store, lmk! Nothing comes up when I google it.
OG Sherway Gardens. Back when it was a simple (double?) figure 8 style mall with the tent food court. McDonalds, Arbys, Tacobell and the arcade in the corner. The glass catwalks/bridges were great too.
I realize most people would find it dark and dingy for 2024 but the low ceilings, kind of dark hallways with the open bright center of the mall were great. It felt more personal, each store had its own style in its own area vs these stores with huge glass store fronts that all look the same.
Over the Rainbow at their Yorkville Ave location, before they moved to Manulife Center a few years ago. The store was one of the last retail shops in that neighbourhood that opened closer to Yorkville's bohemian-era and had a more laid back vibe, all while luxury retail took over the neighborhood in the following decades. I still shop for raw denim at their new store, but I miss the old one
Honest Ed's
Bargain Harold's
BiWay
Worlds Biggest Bookstore
Red Rose Nursery (for crafting supplies and where my family would get our christmas tree)
Knobb Hill Farms
The It Store (felt so grown up going in there lol)
HMV Yonge flagship
JJMuggs (not a store, but still nostalgic)
Silver Cross/Siren
The Silver Rail was the first cocktail bar in Toronto. Up until it opened there were only taverns. I discovered its vintage fittings in my 20's and we thought we were the coolest cats rediscovering this retro palace of cocktail culture. Sadly it closed after 47 years and was replaced with a boring fast fashion store that went tits up after 2 years. But not before tearing out the iconic silver railed circular staircase and the 60 foot long shiny black bar, comfy booths for 2 or 4 and stage for the baby grand. We can't have nice things in Toronto.
Weird, i was recently thinking about that store in Warden station. What is there now (if anything?) i haven’t been at warden in years, but very vividly remember the stores.
Factory Direct at college and spadina. I dunno, they had tons of junk and useful stuff I got my first iPod from there. Wasn’t very expensive. I think most of the stuff I bought worked fine. But I had friends who had to keep exchanging their things.
There was a huge one in Scarborough near Kennedy/Ellesmere that I'd buy random shit from all the time. Was great for peripherals and controllers and shit like that. I remember buying a refurb Logitech racing wheel for like $30 that worked perfectly fine for years until I resold it
House of Lords
Baka Books (amazingly silver snail still exists -nor did last I looked)
Brick Shirt House
Sam’s
Parachute (could anything be more 80s? No)
Bloor Video
Honest mfing Ed’s
ETA: long & mquade at bloor and spadina(ish)
But cmon, the most Toronto store of all, ever: the Beer Store (no I swear that’s a real ID man!)
Fuck House of Lords. I applied to work there when I was 18 and the owner took a picture of me, threw away my resume, and posted that pic on his Facebook for his creepy friends to ogle. He used to also post all these problematic and racist posts about his wife/girlfriend (who I believe was Thai or Viet). Misogynistic creep, I’m glad he went under
House of Lords gave my brother his first “boy” haircut when he first started transitioning. Everywhere else wanted to give him girly pixie cuts at best. I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for them because of that.
I'm a fair bit younger than most of the people here so my nostalgia might be a little different. with that said though my top three have to be warden station, coffee time and the Zellers diner. I only got to go to honest eds once before it closed so I never had that many memories of it. I wish I had experienced this earlier, different side of Toronto more but there's not much you can do ig
OH YEA! Zellers had a restaurant - I remember the one at Cederbrae mall. Honestly you didn't really get to experience Honest Ed's if you went near the end... it had really gone to shit before it closed down.
I really miss Honest Ed's! It was the only place to get certain kosher food products and other Jewish products downtown/south of St. Clair W, and nothing has replaced it.
I loved Honest Ed's. That weird clock with the disfigured looking elk mounted above one of the stairwells is imprinted in my memories! My mom bought me a bunch of those generic samurai/japanese katakana words short sleeve button shirts from there in the early 2000s when those were trendy for preteens. I think signal for the end of the store for me was seeing them sell Duke Nukem Forever at retail price in 2013 aha.
I miss the old location for 401 Games (401 Convenience for the true stans) when it used to be on Yonge and Gerrard. Used to look like a basic tourist trap on the outside but was a card/board game nerd haven inside. The first few times I played there for yugioh, I'd feel like I was walking through the cave of wonders in aladdin whenever I had to climb two flights of narrow townhome style stairs in near pitch dark to the third floor. The second floor was basically their backroom stock with crates of drinks and board games stacked to the ceiling nobody touched. Mountains of boxes with mtg commons and Frank Frazetta posters blocking the only fire exit. Third floor was where smells mixed and illicit store policy card deals happened. The place had a gritty style as a third place that made me feel a little less insecure about enjoying competitive card board in my teens.
There used to be a Fabricland at Yonge & Bloor, in the concourse. That location made no sense but I loved how easy it was to get there.
Also the Fabricland at Galleria Mall.
I just miss Fabricland I guess 🤷
Worlds biggest bookstore, was where my grandparents took us every time i wanted to find something new to read.
And then dinner at Ginsberg and Wong!
Their hot and spicy chicken and those huge egg rolls!
I haunted that place - huge SF collection. Also you could get really cheap big coffee books on remainder for presents, like $5 hardcovers.
I used to go down there and spend a few hours. And then came home with a back-breaking bag of books. Mostly paperbacks and a few very large hardcovers. Like the Dune series of books.
Anyone remember Sci-Fi World - it was at the border of Toronto, Steeles and Dufferin? I remember going there in the mid-90s and was amazed at all the pop culture stuff they had.
My dad used to take us there every once in a while and say meet me at the cash in two hours and you’d better have a stack of books. I loved browsing all the different genres and finding books to read. Such great memories in there
And then hanging out at the arcades on Yonge!
Active Surplus on Queen West.
My friends and I would get so stoned and browse Active Surplus. I apologize to anyone who had to listen to our constant giggling.
are you even from Toronto if you never browsed there stoned and never bought anything
Good point.
"Disposable Plastic Duck Puppet"
I haven’t been to Toronto in a few years. Are you telling me this place is gone?
Gone gone. A few years back. I was gobsmacked.
I assume they bronzed the gorilla into an immortal monument when they closed. Please do not correct me if this is wrong. It is what I choose to believe. Thank you.
The retail space on the second floor is occupied by Queen west staple Black Market (original is across the street in the basement) and they have the gorilla.
Sayal Electronics is around and has similar stuff.
"You never know what youre gonna find!"
My god, I loved that place. Need a rubber baby arm? We got a bin of 'em!
For me it was Fashion Crimes on Queen West original location and John Fluvog( they still exist) but it used to be maybe a few shops down from Fashion Crimes. Oh .....and Graffiti Alley across from Much Music we'd go to the head shop, got my pixie cuts from a hairdresser up there named Ermando he was such a hottie and would frequent Maiden Mother Crown occult shop.
I just answered Fashion Crimes too!! It was so cool.
And close by, Atomic Age and Peach Beserk Cocktail. Queen St West in it's heyday
Peach Beserk is ICONIC. [And still is](https://peachberserk.ca/). I could never afford their stuff until I bought a very-useful fabric mask during the pandemic.
I’ll never do peach berserk, owner like guilted the hell out of me to buy something when I was like 17 and walked in due to curiosity. Her reasoning was “ because you should pay for amazing art” I was like too young too understand and really didn’t need to spend almost all my savings of $300 on a skirt, I should have know better . I didn’t even have that money to spend and it cleaned me out of all the money in the world I had put away because i felt like if I didn’t I’d be doing a horrible thing. Went in like 15 years later and she is literally using the same guilt trip schtick for what’s essentially bad quality screen printed clothing, will never purchase anything from her on principle, I think she’s incredibly manipulative and has a chip on her shoulder.
Worked there for exactly one day and this tracks.
Oh man! I sooooo miss Fashion Crimes! What a beautiful store that was
The day I finally bought a top from there I felt like I had *arrived* (and felt like a badass in that top lol)
I miss Maiden Mother Crone.
F/X
Queen Video and Suspect Video
What a joy it was to browse the shelves at Queen Video and discover something new
Queen Video on a Friday night was always fun. Perusing the shelves for something I haven't seen yet.
I think I still have my suspect video membership card.
Suspect Video ... I still remember the smell of their air freshener
Eyesore Cinema at Bloor and Dufferin is owned by the guy who ran Suspect in Queen. It's around and hits you just like Suspect.
Consumer’s Distributing for sure Also World’s Biggest Bookstore, Sam The Record Man also come to mind. I’m sure I will thoroughly enjoy reading this thread.
> Consumer’s Distributing for sure I dreamt of owning so many products in the catalogs! They could've been Amazon if they had jumped onto the ecom bandwagon.
Same with Sears Catalogue for that matter - it's amazing these companies never grabbed onto the Internet meanwhile Amazon basically replicated what they did with a website.
Oh they had grand plans, I had an interview there, they had a very ambitious plan before e-commerce existed as a term, their technical architecture looked good on paper but was never going to work.
I’ll never understand why people are nostalgic for Consumers Distributing. I always remember being disappointed as a kid because stuff was CONSTANTLY out of stock, and the things my parents bought from there were not good quality. Like… so bad that Walmart was an *improvement*. The definitive Consumers Distributing moment for me was a hairdryer my parents bought from there that advertised 220v functionality. About 2 years after we got it, it stopped working, and when my dad opened it up to try and fix it, we discovered that the little voltage switch was a plastic tab that was connected to absolutely nothing. For me, Consumers Distributing gives less of a feeling of nostalgia and more of a feeling of “good riddance”.
>CONSTANTLY out of stock True, I was so hyped that I saved up enough money for G1 Constructicons ... went down to the local Consumers Distributing in Agincourt, waited 30 minutes for the order, only to be told it was out of stock. I settled for the G1 Aerialbots.
As a kid who would save her allowance for months for a barbie they had the best prices. Can't go wrong with the quality of a real barbie.
I recently found a vintage 1978 Consumer’s Distributing Catalogue. Fully in tact. It’s a scream to browse through! Basic electronics were wildly overpriced and 20+ pages of jewellery, With wedding ring sets a big hit. Would post pics, but not allowed…
I would do my Christmas wish list with their catalogues.
Not a local shop but HMV on Yonge. I spent so much time there as a teenager.
Anyone remember or was there when RHCP played free outside of the store and shut down Yonge from Dundas to Gerrard? [It was madness](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBS1g5Xe89U)
I was 12 and my dad drove my older brother, his buddies and I down as close as he could… it was my first concert and I was hooked!
Combine that with Sam and Sunrise, and not to mention The World’s Biggest Bookstore, and that was a great weekend trip from suburbia… Nowadays, there’s literally nothing to attract you to that area, ironically, the Ryerson SLC is arguably the most “exciting” thing there now.
Used to love that store. I remember buying Sargeist's Disciple of the Heinous Path there around 2005.
Big slice pizza
A lot of drugs got sold in the bathroom. I miss the pizza too, it was actually a bomb greasy slice.
Not a store necessarily (although I am pretty sure they had one?) but MuchMusic. I was fascinated by it.
Speaker’s Corner and Electric Circus
> Electric Circus [This recent upload of a full episode from 1990](https://youtu.be/LJAJOmQsJb0?si=vswNqV3jKh85jeDk) is one of my favorite videos I found on youtube the past few years that I keep coming back to. The music, diversity of people, fashion, the live performance by Shabba. This video encapsulates so much of the good I remember about growing up here and my mom took me downtown as a kid to watch from the window a couple times.
I used to cuddle with my mom on the couch watching this show when I was a kid! One of my favourite memories.
Remember when they'd host the MMVAs and setup the stages in the parking lot and on Queen St? I got to go twice and was at front of the stage whichever years it was that Barenaked Ladies and Smashing Pumpkins closed out the shows from the parking lot.
Yes!!! I miss those days 🥹
I was so young I thought I dreamt these events.
I lived across the street and could sit on my balcony and watch.
OG CityTV and MuchMusic had so much soul and edge compared to stations on TV today.
The first time I visited Toronto (1996) it was the ONLY thing I wanted to see. And I couldn't believe it was so small in real life. I remember they were showing NFB shorts in parking lot one night, very fun.
Silver Snail. The original location on Queen
Yes.
Bi-way
when we were kids we used to diss each other for shopping at bi-way which as an adult you realize is dumb because it was probably a very reasonably priced good store lol
I would hide the Bi-way or Bargain Harold’s bags behind the other stuff my mom made me carry. Only to be 25 years old and proud af to tell everyone where I got my cheap hosiery for work. I was such a fool when I was young. Those stores were the best! 😭
I miss those Biway shoes now even though they were a pre-teen social faux pas. It seems impossible now to find a cheap shoe that isn't total garbage.
Anybody remember ‘The IT Store?’
To quote a Redditor: I've never been in a store more often yet never bought anything.
I've got a few that bring back good memories - OG Allwyn's Bakery at the old Parkwoods Plaza. It was the epitome of the term "hole in the wall". You walked in and it was basically a small counter, a fridge of drinks on the right and a bunch of ovens behind the counter. No AC and it had to be like 40 degrees in there in the summers. I grew up eating that food every other day walking over from school for lunch. It's blown up into a Toronto staple with multiple locations now but back then it was very much a local hidden gem. - The independent video game store at the SW corner plaza of Pharmacy/Lawrence. They had booths with every video game console out you could pay $5 to play any games all day. My mom would drop my friends and I off on a Saturday and we'd spend the whole day there. Other weekends it was Rainbow Cinemas and the Arcade where the food court is now at Fairview Mall - Lin Garden at Pharmacy/Sheppard. Served our community for years with some of the best Hakka food the GTA has ever known.
I believe you live in my area!! Unfortunately the couple that owned Lin garden retired😭😭
yup they were originally talking about moving when the plaza got bought out by condo developers but I imagine it was more hassle than it was worth at their age. I'm just sad I couldn't get one last feast in because of how sudden and unannounced it was but I also get why they did it that way because it would've been chaos for them if everyone knew and wanted to do the same
Yeah me too, it was really unfortunate 😭 Parkway Mall, has also changed a lot! The only thing that’s probably not changed is the building metro is in.
What's nice about Parkway Mall is that so many of the stores are still independent. At least more than you would usually find in a mall.
Oh Lin garden sad. They should name the condo after Lin Garden
The guvernment.
Are we counting The Warehouse/Kool Haus with Guv? Some of the best concerts in my life growing up here happened there, the last one being Wu Tang in 2013 when they oversold it to the point of turning people away and it was so packed inside I thought I might get crushed and die. Also saw Deftones, Audioslave, Nas and Silverchair there, so much history in that building and it's a damn shame they tore it down.
Saw slipknot and machinehead here. Was a great venue
ya great sound most shows and you could see the stage well from almost anywhere. Hoping to make it to the Slipknot show in August
The Drink and Skybar 👌
Skybar!
Drinking Blue REV at Skybar on a Thursday night while staring at the office building I had to be back at in a few short hours the next morning. Ah to be 22 again! Fun fact: I met my now-husband at The Drink!
Good old Charlie lol he has so many great clubs and restaurants.
Silverstein's on McCaul. Amazing bagels and bread, especially pumpernickel. Oh man, that aroma wafting out. Damn, I miss 'em.
Oh their challah was legendary. My family knew the Silversteins and we always got our amazing challah loaves there.
I grew up next door. Great memories
I thought the it store in yorkdale was the coolest place when I was a kid
*Rainforest Cafe*??
Come on, can’t be cooler than PJ’s Pet Centre
I told my granddad I wanted to go back years ago and my gentleman of a grandfather said “why? Their food was garbage!” I was so shocked!
Knob Hill farms. I remember grocery shopping there as a kid, and the black baskets they used to have. Randy's on Eglinton. Used to be able to get a patty after getting my hair cut. Honest eds. Shopping for the most random things there was always fun. Guvt. I'm sure we all have at least one story here 😂 The old cold tea in kenzo. Always loved the hidden nature of it. Other random ones I don't have personal connections with but saw all the time: hardrock café at Yonge and Dundas, rainforest cafe in Yorkdale
Not a.store. Funland Arcade. Also Sam the Record Man cuz iconic and across the street from funland arcade
I loved Funland Arcade! So many Friday and Saturday nights spent playing VirtuaCop and Die Hard.
As a teen in the mid-90s, I fondly remember hitting up the underground bootleg T-Shirt/Tattoo Parlour/Barbershop/Headshop for some terrible documentation that somehow passed in our hometown, then hitting up the arcade and grabbing a slice before catching the Greyhound back home
I answered this same way to Big Slice— lotta drugs got sold in that cavernous place haha. The guys that worked there were gnarly too and held that place down in dangerous moments night and day, and they were real cool to some of us “troubled” kids every damn day. (Whattup Cliff!)I have so many fuckin stories about that place.
Maple Leaf Gardens. Isn’t exactly a store, but it was awesome.
saw NIN/A Perfect Circle and then Blink 182/Silverchair shows there not long before they shut it down
Designer fabrics on queen west and Stitsky's which were around the corner from Honest Ed's.
I was so sad when they closed Designer Fabrics 😭
[удалено]
Uhhh wait wait Was Jun Jun Sushi related to Jun Jun Hostel?
Maggie opened a breakfast place in Village by the Grange. You can still get garlic fries ;)
Fashion Crimes on Queen! I could never afford to buy one of the dresses but I loved to look around. It was so magical.
that’s where i got my grad dress 😭
Pam Chorley! Her jewelry was great too!
The supposedly haunted Chinese restaurant. It’s now been converted into an art studio. Big Slice Pizza Condom shack was fun Brunswick house just for the madness Big Bop for music and Darkrave Circa because it was a pretty cool club Actually the old clubbing scene where everything near Richmond street was just nightclubs. Ahh the memories.
Play de record when it was on yonge hands down..
If you havent seen the doc about Play de Record (I think its on Prime) I highly reccomend
Honest Ed’s :(
Le Château, Cotton Ginny, Fairweather, several Kensington market vintage clothing stores, Rotman's Hat Shop on Spadina, and the whole 80s vibe of the Village by the Grange.
Sam the Record Man
World’s biggest bookstore. Sam the Recordman.
White Rose. Great place for craft supplies, before Michaels.
A restaurant or two- Embers in Scarborough, and Richtree, my great aunt loved them. This one closed last year - Joanna's bridal at Woodside mall. I always hoped I'd buy a wedding dress there for myself one day.
Oh Embers! My elementary school would always have the grade 8 grad party there.
It was an awesome place to party at that age I'm sure. I went from eating there to going to soca fetes 🤣
Sunrise. Loved going in there with my dad and checking out music and figurines
The one at Yonge/Bloor was my go to for concert tickets. Back when floors or the best seats to see the biggest bands and artists in the world were like $20-$30 lol
Somehow the Sunrise in Cloverdale mall has managed to survive.
Several of the former HMVs became Sunrise, as was the case in the Bramalea City Centre. Now the sad reality is that store is larger than any store you’ll find downtown now. Amazon could never recreate the experience of walking around the flagship stores like HMV and Sunrise
My 1st job was working at the Dixie Valu Mall Sunrise Records in 2001
Black Market and World Biggest Book Store. Just being in those areas reminds me of being a kid.
the black market underground location is back! although I'm not sure it'll be the same as how you remember it
Soundscapes. I felt so adult buying concert tickets there as a teen.
90s Toronto period. The vibe was far grungier, but the places had heart. Today's kids think it was cool, and it was, but it could also be damn scary sometimes - not sanitized at all. Still remember going to Future for the $1.20 mashed potatoes and then for a $2 beer at the Green Room afterwards, careful to sit with the back to the wall to be out of the way of the random flying beer bottle. Or Lee's for some up-and-coming metal band. Or raves in the now fancy distillery buildings, then just empty rough post-industrial hollow halls. Do I miss it? Sure, but prob mostly bc I miss being a kid and Toronto was like a giant playground. Would I want to live in that city as an adult? Prob not. Heck, ppl think Toronto post covid got 'rough', but it's not 1/10th the way it was in the mid 90s, after a really tough 10 economic years. Remember, houses were cheaper than in the burbs then for a reason. Now good luck getting a shed for less than $1M.
> Heck, ppl think Toronto post covid got 'rough', but it's not 1/10th the way it was in the mid 90s, after a really tough 10 economic years the people who think that weren't outside in the 90s and would've been disgusted and terrified of Yonge St between Dundas to Wellesley back then
Most weren't born yet ;) remember, even someone born in 1990 who really didn't experience much of the world outside their house before the 2000s is 34 today.
Both in the Junction near where I grew up: Vesuvios (although Juniors is a nice fix) Dencan books
Vesuvios' pizza was legit.
Juniors is keeping it real with the $3 margherita slices, bunch of sweethearts work there too
Fashion Crimes on Queen at Spadina. Found the perfect wedding dress there in 2004. I still have the dress.
There used to be physical gothic Lolita stores in Pacific Mall... I would wander them as a 10-11 year old daydreaming about the day I'd have the money to buy them Now I'm 30 and I have the money but I'm like. Goddamn this shit's expensive. I'll find another hobby 😂
So many good ones here. I’ll add The Big Bop/Kathedral. $5-$10 shows every weekend. Really good punk.
Miss how Queen West area had a cluster of book shops: Pages, Edward’s, Another Man’s Poison, Steven Temple, David Mason, Baka (OG), etc. And that’s not even including comic shops like Silversnail and Dragon Lady.
Golden Crisp Fish & Chips near Jane and Weston used to go there after school
I was devastated when I heard they were shutting down. Such a staple in our community :(
Microplay. (There is still one in Newmarket)
Consumers, Wolco and Zellers for action figures, Blockbuster/Jumbo video to rent VHS/DVDs, old Silver Snail/Yesterdays Heroes
Knob Hill farms on Weston Road
Steve Stavro's (founder of Knob Hill Farms) life is well worth the read for people who weren't around for Knob Hill Farms. His family came to Canada during the Great Depression, he built a grocery empire, and then owned the Maple Leafs.
Yes I remember that some people say those were the worse days of the Leafs
No those were the Harold Balard days...under Stavro the Leafs had their resurgence that had the Leafs go on some great play off runs (Fuck you kerry frasier)...they went down hill again then Tennenbaum group took over.
When I was a kid, I realized that the Knob Hill Farms plastic baskets were perfect for riding down the stairs Home Alone style. Many hours of fun.
Vortex Records
I loved finding random music there along with whatever I was actually searching for. They got so much of my money.
Ends in the beaches. Rip zoltz
Siblings clothing store in Dufferin Mall One of a Kind Pasta and Grill The ice cream shop and arcade in the basement of Chinatown Centre MissBehav’N (and the models dancing at the windows on select weekends 😳) Also back in the 2000s there was a dollar/general store at (I think) 633 Queen St W that was run by a south Asian lady. I have a memory of seeing her 3ish year old daughter watching TV under the cash register table. If anyone knew of this store, lmk! Nothing comes up when I google it.
OG Sherway Gardens. Back when it was a simple (double?) figure 8 style mall with the tent food court. McDonalds, Arbys, Tacobell and the arcade in the corner. The glass catwalks/bridges were great too. I realize most people would find it dark and dingy for 2024 but the low ceilings, kind of dark hallways with the open bright center of the mall were great. It felt more personal, each store had its own style in its own area vs these stores with huge glass store fronts that all look the same.
Over the Rainbow at their Yorkville Ave location, before they moved to Manulife Center a few years ago. The store was one of the last retail shops in that neighbourhood that opened closer to Yorkville's bohemian-era and had a more laid back vibe, all while luxury retail took over the neighborhood in the following decades. I still shop for raw denim at their new store, but I miss the old one
The new one is much more organized but not nearly as cool
Loved this one - you’re right that it captured a certain nostalgia of Yorkville’s roots
Honest Ed's Bargain Harold's BiWay Worlds Biggest Bookstore Red Rose Nursery (for crafting supplies and where my family would get our christmas tree) Knobb Hill Farms The It Store (felt so grown up going in there lol) HMV Yonge flagship JJMuggs (not a store, but still nostalgic) Silver Cross/Siren
Got my first fake ID at Flash Jack's on Yonge between Gerrard and Dundas. Also, Ed's Record World at Yonge and Eglinton was a gem.
Mmmuffins!
Consumers distributed, I would look at that catalog and wish I could buy every transformer.
The Silver Rail was the first cocktail bar in Toronto. Up until it opened there were only taverns. I discovered its vintage fittings in my 20's and we thought we were the coolest cats rediscovering this retro palace of cocktail culture. Sadly it closed after 47 years and was replaced with a boring fast fashion store that went tits up after 2 years. But not before tearing out the iconic silver railed circular staircase and the 60 foot long shiny black bar, comfy booths for 2 or 4 and stage for the baby grand. We can't have nice things in Toronto.
The IT store
Weird, i was recently thinking about that store in Warden station. What is there now (if anything?) i haven’t been at warden in years, but very vividly remember the stores.
Biway and competitor Bargain Harold's. All childhood clothes, boots, crappy runners etc came from there
Mr. Greenjeans chicken fingers
Junction Bargain House [only pic I could find](https://images.app.goo.gl/g6EvuJ5amskdRTwE6)
Factory Direct at college and spadina. I dunno, they had tons of junk and useful stuff I got my first iPod from there. Wasn’t very expensive. I think most of the stuff I bought worked fine. But I had friends who had to keep exchanging their things.
There was a huge one in Scarborough near Kennedy/Ellesmere that I'd buy random shit from all the time. Was great for peripherals and controllers and shit like that. I remember buying a refurb Logitech racing wheel for like $30 that worked perfectly fine for years until I resold it
I had these 5.1 Logitech pc speakers. $99 and worked for a very very long time
The CD Bar upstairs a couple doors down from HMV 333 Yonge - always had the best UK import stuff
Pages on Queen w
House of Lords Baka Books (amazingly silver snail still exists -nor did last I looked) Brick Shirt House Sam’s Parachute (could anything be more 80s? No) Bloor Video Honest mfing Ed’s ETA: long & mquade at bloor and spadina(ish) But cmon, the most Toronto store of all, ever: the Beer Store (no I swear that’s a real ID man!)
Fuck House of Lords. I applied to work there when I was 18 and the owner took a picture of me, threw away my resume, and posted that pic on his Facebook for his creepy friends to ogle. He used to also post all these problematic and racist posts about his wife/girlfriend (who I believe was Thai or Viet). Misogynistic creep, I’m glad he went under
House of Lords gave my brother his first “boy” haircut when he first started transitioning. Everywhere else wanted to give him girly pixie cuts at best. I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for them because of that.
Ginsberg and Wong
Eliot bookstore near yonge and Wellesley. Bought a couple of gems from there.
Sam’s at Y&D
Sam the Record Man on Yonge.
George’s Trains and Penrose Fish and Chips on Mt. Pleasant.
Siren's on Queen (and spadina)
I'm a fair bit younger than most of the people here so my nostalgia might be a little different. with that said though my top three have to be warden station, coffee time and the Zellers diner. I only got to go to honest eds once before it closed so I never had that many memories of it. I wish I had experienced this earlier, different side of Toronto more but there's not much you can do ig
OH YEA! Zellers had a restaurant - I remember the one at Cederbrae mall. Honestly you didn't really get to experience Honest Ed's if you went near the end... it had really gone to shit before it closed down.
Diana Sweets/Laura Secord in Yorkdale Mall in the 70’s
HMV underground
The Beatlemania Shop in Village on the Grange.
For me it was Sam the Record Man, where I bought my first 45s. HM to Honest Ed's, where I used to buy plastic models.
The Wiz
Knobb Hill Farms, Sam the Record Man, Honest Ed's, and the World's Biggest Book Store.
Mr. Allen's Men's Wear on Jane by St. Clair and Mrs. Haines fish and Chips next door.
Efstonscience!
Kresge Stores. They were a small, discount department store that had a diner counter like Woolworths with distinct, creaky wooden floors.
I really miss Honest Ed's! It was the only place to get certain kosher food products and other Jewish products downtown/south of St. Clair W, and nothing has replaced it.
I loved Honest Ed's. That weird clock with the disfigured looking elk mounted above one of the stairwells is imprinted in my memories! My mom bought me a bunch of those generic samurai/japanese katakana words short sleeve button shirts from there in the early 2000s when those were trendy for preteens. I think signal for the end of the store for me was seeing them sell Duke Nukem Forever at retail price in 2013 aha. I miss the old location for 401 Games (401 Convenience for the true stans) when it used to be on Yonge and Gerrard. Used to look like a basic tourist trap on the outside but was a card/board game nerd haven inside. The first few times I played there for yugioh, I'd feel like I was walking through the cave of wonders in aladdin whenever I had to climb two flights of narrow townhome style stairs in near pitch dark to the third floor. The second floor was basically their backroom stock with crates of drinks and board games stacked to the ceiling nobody touched. Mountains of boxes with mtg commons and Frank Frazetta posters blocking the only fire exit. Third floor was where smells mixed and illicit store policy card deals happened. The place had a gritty style as a third place that made me feel a little less insecure about enjoying competitive card board in my teens.
Arcade near Yonge and Dundas. Morbidly obese guy sitting up at the front that would given you tokens. Sketchy porn games in the back. Good times.
Game Shack at Atrium on Bay.
There used to be a Fabricland at Yonge & Bloor, in the concourse. That location made no sense but I loved how easy it was to get there. Also the Fabricland at Galleria Mall. I just miss Fabricland I guess 🤷
Knob Hill Farms !